Dr. Ted Purinton is Founding Dean of the Sharjah Education Academy. Previously as Senior Education Advisor for the Economic Development Board of Bahrain (seconded as C.E./Dean of the Bahrain Teachers College), Purinton doubled the size of the college and expanded its programs and consultative capacity for educational reform within Bahrain.

Previous to that, he served as Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the American University in Cairo (AUC), as well as Associate Provost for the University (AUC’s senior internationalization officer, also responsible for academic administration and strategic initiatives); Chair of the Department of Educational Administration at National Louis University in Chicago; Associate at the Center for Literacy, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory; programs administrator at the Paramount Unified School District in Los Angeles; and a high school/intermediate school English teacher in Los Angeles. He holds a doctorate in educational policy, planning, and administration from the University of Southern California.

Purinton has served on multiple boards for various schools and other educational institutions and has consulted for a wide range of educational organizations and governments on issues ranging from organizational restructuring to teacher professional development, university budget allocation to tertiary system redesign, and more.